Da Vinci before Da Vinci

Now, don't get me wrong. Leonardo Da Vinci was awesome! And since he never learned Greek or Latin, he didn't just read stuff and believe it, like most people did in the Renaissance. (I mean, Renaissance should mean people finally getting around to read 2000 year old books.)

But, he wasn't the first to do alot of things.

For one thing, he wasn't the first Italian to work with Oils. Sure he was probably the first to slap it on a wall above a laundry facility (ie Last Super), but plenty of artists, including Botticelli, and everyone up in Venice had discovered oils. Not to mention the north was full of it. They loved the beautiful layering and volumetric forms you can get outta oil. Tempera, that fuzzy stuff? Thats one of the things the Italians tried to hold on forever, but... it was like death. For one, you can't mix the colors on whatever your painting, so you need tiny little strokes of paint... Yuck. Painstaking blah.

Anyway, He wasn't the first jack of all trades either. The artist Francisco di Giorgio did everything! He developed crazy hilltop fortresses, and all kinds of weapon defenses for castles using geometry and math.

And he built this beautiful church! Can anyone say Brunileschi??? Its also so sparse almost Palladian!

And! He did some painting, which was alright.

Isn't that architecture sweet? Reminiscent of the downfall of Roman pagan society as a result of Christianity??? OH YEAH!

And he did sculpture! Look at the raw emotion in this relief!!! Nothing like Da Vinci's shit.

And the anatomy is pretty nice too. Why? Because, FRANCISCO DI GIORGIO WAS THE FIRST GUY TO DRAW THE ViTRUVIAN MAN!!!! Oh, you thought Vitruvian man was a thing thought up by Da Vinci, nope. First, the perfect man is described by this Roman guy Vitruvious (same guy described the founding of Rome, Etruscan Architecture, and fun stuff like that...), Then Di Giorgio was like, HEY i can do that, so he did:

And this, believe it or not, was in a notebook that he GAVE to Leonardo da Vinci!!!! So Leo was like, WHOA hes onto something!!!! And did the Vitruvian man we know today.

And that looks nice. :)

Oh, And you think Ford invented the car, nope. Di Giorgio!

Jack of all trades. His only failing was probably that he liked money, and he lived in Siena, and he didn't really care about painting that much. Which happens. Painting is definetly not the best enterprise for the Renaissance man. Its not a good living. When Da Vinci moves in with the Duke of Milan he gives him a list of all his special skills, and painting was the last of ten. And he said something along the lines of, "if you really want me to, I'll paint you, but I won't promise anything".

Di Giorgio did alot of cool stuff, and he shared it with his contemporaries, they probably had a pretty good meeting of the minds. Especially since da Vinci was designing the weapons, and di Giorgio was designing the defense, so it probably worked out for them both.

Note: Its not that I hate the big three. Da Vinci is awesome, he did some crazy pants stuff, but HE isn't the Renaissance. There are plenty of other characters running around too. If you wanna get all conspiracy crazed, go ahead.  But, they weren't the only people around, and they weren't the only people patrons hired, or artists studied, or who ran workshops (Rafael was the only one to run a huge workshop, Leo moved around alot, and Michelangelo wanted to be alone...). And in reality, da Vinci and Michelangelo between them created a body of work the size of my thumb nail compared to other artists, albeit there works are singularly wonderful, and they were some of the most well known artists around the world today, but it wasn't always like that.

They used to be obscure artists too, known by only a handful of works and what Vasari chose to write about them. Who knows, maybe back then, di Giorgio was more popular, because people would spend more on a hilltop fortress than a turret cannon that fires at a 360 angle.